Changes, Chances
by wordfish
Summary: "It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance. It is the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance. It is the one who won't be taken who cannot seem to give. And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live."
1. Chapter 1

"It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance. It is the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance. It is the one who won't be taken who cannot seem to give. And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live." –Bette Midler, _The Rose_

* * *

**_Changes, Chances_**

_by Wordfish_

**Chapter 1**

* * *

By the time two weeks had passed since Sanosuke had reportedly come back to Japan, Megumi found herself thinking about the ruffian much more frequently than she would have liked to. While Yahiko's hastily-scribbled letter had simply informed her that, yes, Sagara Sanosuke was back in Tokyo in one, healthy and robust piece and that he had apparently cleared himself off all previous charges, Megumi could not help but wonder about several things – things such as, '_How on earth had he done it?', 'How was he now?'_, or '_How did his travels go?'_—things that, as she reasoned to herself, were borne out of an entirely natural and entirely friendly concern.

Her mind kept generating images of the handsome youth, energetic and passionate, and somewhat childish, in his greatest moments of both chivalry and nonchalance. A funny hint of attraction had always peppered their interactions, but it clearly didn't amount to much if they had chosen to keep separated for seven years. Still, the childish part of Megumi enjoyed replaying memories of how often they used to be teased as—god forbid—lovers, a kind of enjoyment that was akin to watching a train wreck and you just couldn't look away even though it would be best if you did. She never seriously considered the lazy bum as anything more than a satisfying target for her calculated flirtations, the kind that got her heart racing with annoyance more than butterflies, but looking back, she couldn't say she had had more fun flirting with anybody else, not even with the adorably timid and shy manner in which Kenshin tried to counter her attention.

After two weeks of the same looped musings, she began to wonder about what was expected of her in light of Yahiko's letter. Was she supposed to come and see him in Tokyo, or was Sanosuke going to have to live up to his seven-year-old jibe of running to Aizu to come see her? She had not sent a reply to Yahiko only because she didn't know what to say, for it seemed that from the haste and excitement evident in the briefness of Yahiko's letter, he (as well as the whole of the Tokyo gang, Megumi supposed), were in a state of utter gladness for the return of their friend. What surprises and stories Sanosuke had brought home with him, Megumi could only imagine, and a tiny part of her wished she could enjoy the same enthusiasm everyone else seemed to have for returned world-travelers and fight-loving vagabonds.

Megumi couldn't say that she was in the same state as her friends, because aside from being constantly distracted, she had become a little on-edge in her daily routines, constantly disrupted by a—and no, she didn't have a better way of describing this—_weird feeling_ in the pit of her stomach. Sanosuke had always caused this particular restless state in her, she recalled, the kind that was more like an itch that one wanted desperately to scratch but couldn't find the exact location of, or like the endless chirps of a nearby cricket that had become annoying more than relaxing, but it was always _there _and what was she supposed to do about it? And while it wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling, not much could be said for it being welcome, because just in the past few days she would often catch herself staring into space in deep thought in the middle of more pressing tasks at the clinic.

She knew herself as one who was, at best, _skirty_ about feelings that threatened to be visible beyond her polished exterior, and so ignoring the (very strong) urge to hop into a carriage to Tokyo to come see him for herself for the mere purpose of assuaging her curiosity, she finally resigned to write them one day.

She addressed her letter to Yahiko, which was only proper as he'd been the one to inform her of Sanosuke's return, and simply said that she was glad the rooster was well and seemed to be healthy from what little she could gather from his letter. She enclosed with it a medicine packet that resembled the one she had given Kenshin when he left for Kyoto, she said, in the likely case that he would get himself in trouble if he hadn't already, while she wasn't around to treat him. A post-script at the bottom informed them that she was well in Aizu, as usual, and that she sends her love to Tsubame and their little princess, Kaori, and Genzai-sensei and the girls, Yutarou and Kenji.

Three more days passed without incident following her curt reply, but as it seemed, the thought of Sanosuke was not going to leave her in peace. Aizu was not a very busy place for a doctor, other than occasional coughs and colds gripping the farmers or their children due to the unsteady weather heralding the rainy season. Her medical stores were meticulously complete and labeled, and her garden was impeccably healthy. There was nothing more to do to keep distracted from the distraction that was news of Sanosuke's abrupt return, serving to only push her on edge further.

The truth of it was that she _had _wanted to see him, only that she wouldn't know what to do after that. She was always envisioning that they'd end up in their relentless battle-of-wits, which she admits would seem childish now, and quite tiresome. After the initial joy of reunion, he would probably get back into the habit of getting in trouble and needing her to fix him up, then his return to gambling and drinking, all the things that represented what Megumi was decidedly not, and the endless list of the ways in which they were completely different and opposites would only burn itself into her mind and cause her to lose her temper. No, she wasn't excited for that. Maybe it was best that they keep their distance in this day and age. After all, how deep had their friendship really been if all it had been about were the banter and the jibes, the annoyance and the one-upping?

She laughed to herself at this, and settled with the thought that maybe Sanosuke was best kept as a long-ago, sometimes-fond-sometimes-irksome memory than a constant presence in her life. She was going to be twenty-nine in a few months, surely a complete grown-up than what her seven-year-old encounters with Sanosuke had always reduced her to. And if he had indeed changed after all these years, getting himself out of his charges and whatnot, what need would he have of the fox who would undoubtedly only belittle everything he ever did?

Dusk was beginning to settle, with nothing happening in the clinic and not a single patient to treat except for the neighbor's kid dropping by to ask for more of the cough herb, please, and thank you, daddy said he will pay up when he was well enough to work again.

Megumi sighed and got up from her desk to light a few candles. At least she had this time to lightly catch up on her medical reading. She ambled over to the kitchen to start cooking dinner for herself, humming a nondescript invented tune just to break the pregnant silence that seemed to live for mocking her solitude rather than completing it.

It was when she was adding the radish to her stew that she heard a voice calling from the front gates. Thinking that it was probably a last-minute patient (unlikely in these parts, at this time of the day, unless it was an emergency), she hurried towards the voice to welcome the stranger.

"Takani Megumi-sensei?", the voice called again from behind the gate.

"Yes, what can I do—" Megumi stopped mid-sentence, taking in the form of an older, stubbled, darker, and longer-haired Sanosuke. The man seemed to have lost his bearings for a split-second upon seeing her, promptly dropping his travel satchel in what seemed to be genuine surprise to rival hers. And then his face turned up in a very bright smile.

Megumi noted with uncertainty that this was far from the smug look the old Sanosuke would have given her for catching her off-guard, but nonetheless it was the warmest, happiest thing Megumi had seen in Aizu for a long time. He raised his hand to wave, but seemed to think better of it midway, realizing, perhaps, that it looked stupid when he was only two paces away from her. He ended up scratching the back of his ear, looking suspiciously out-of-character with that trace of embarrassment lining his smile, and Megumi resisted the urge to pull at his ear like she used to, to ask him to come back to himself.

"Sanosuke!" she acknowledged at last, finding her voice. "What on earth are you doing here?"

The man's face faltered a fraction before regaining the brightness of its smile, but overall seemed to be expecting this kind of reaction from her. "Gee, what does a man need to do to get a proper welcome in here, huh?"he laughed, the easy mirth in his eyes an unmistakable trademark of Sagara Sanosuke. And, pausing briefly, as if surprised to find himself saying the next few words, he continued, "God, Megumi… damn, it's been _seven years_, hasn't it?" he said, more to the tune of one who was astounded by the incredulity that yes, he seemed to have just realized, it _had been _seven long years.

Megumi didn't know what to do so she settled for gripping the gate, which was still only half-open from when she was expecting to welcome a patient and was disrupted with the sudden realization that it was Sanosuke on the other side of it. She was only still gathering her thoughts when he dropped the hand from its awkward place behind his ear and instead opened both his arms forward in a beckoning gesture. "If you give me a welcome hug, I can go back to Tokyo and never bother you again," he ventured unsurely, but quickly, as if forcing himself to say it before he lost his courage. His face maintained that bright, bright (almost annoyingly so) smile.

The unscratchable itch and the hidden cricket were there once again, buzzing and unsettling her with triple the vigor of the last few weeks, urging her into restlessness borne out of _wanting _to do something about it; and just as quickly, just right before she could get the chance to re-consider herself or what she was about to do, she found herself in his arms, returning his hug, his long arms blanketing her over a decent spot in her shoulders, half her face inadvertently buried in his travel coat and noting for the first time the scent of sandalwood and the scent of his bright energy, if one could describe the scent of Sano as that.

Somehow, for some reason, it was acceptable, as if Sanosuke had just come back from the dead, as if Megumi never knew he had come back until now, as if they had been very good—no, the best of—friends in a climactic reunion.

As quickly as it had happened, though, it had started to become awkward to Megumi, who worshipped propriety in the middle of what could be a gossip brewery on her doorstep. She tried to detach herself from him as casually as possible, but Sanosuke seemed to be beside himself drinking in the feeling of the fox nestled under his arm. "I'm back!" he announced dumbly, needlessly, and Megumi wanted to smack him in the head. For a second, Megumi was worried that Sanosuke was indeed getting carried away and getting strange ideas in his head, and so with greater force, she broke apart from the embrace.

Sanosuke just looked happily dazed, as if only realizing now that he got way more than he thought he had the right to ask for. So dizzy-looking was he that when Megumi did finally pinch his ear to get him back to earth, he could only smile apologetically.

"I was just making dinner. I'm sure you'll be wanting to eat, as always," Megumi casually noted, turning back into the house and leaving the doorway open for Sanosuke to follow. And follow he did, quietly, like a lost puppy just glad to be home after a long day of searching. She had already led him to her _tatami_ drawing room to wait when his surreal excitement over seeing her seemed to have subsided, and he asked for a bath. She showed him the way and he insisted that he could draw it up himself and that she ought to look after her cooking, and they separated.

Only as Megumi was stirring her vegetable soup again did she regain her former calmness, for the way Sano (and herself) had acted had surprised her beyond belief. She tried to ignore the thought that men and women didn't usually hug, not in public, and not if they weren't closely associated—like siblings, or like lovers, and even then lovers or siblings didn't usually do such things in public. But she had surprised herself with the knowledge that a hug seemed like the only proper thing to do to sum up how she'd felt—however she felt, whatever those itchy-cricket feelings were—and it seemed like Sano returned the fervor just as much. They hadn't been the best of friends before, but the years apart had emphasized something that wasn't apparent until now, and that was that they stirred things in each other that nobody else did. She briefly wondered if that was how Sano had greeted the others in Tokyo, with a hug, with that bright smile on his face, and supposed so. Nothing was weird; she tried to convince herself, except for the flattering thought that he could still be so overwhelmingly happy to see her, given their flimsy history. It seemed that Sano had changed, and it was silly of her to think otherwise. She decided that it would be nice to re-meet this old friend.

Megumi laid out food for the both of them (a serving good for three, for Sano) and jumped in surprise when Sanosuke quietly appeared in the doorway in a _yukata_ that seemed to surprisingly be his own, for she couldn't imagine how he could have borrowed one that would fit him. Megumi snorted a little ungracefully at this, at the implied assumption that he was going to spend the night in her house, without her permission, but decided to let it slip as something that the old Sano would have done. She _was _rather lonely up here in Aizu, and a friend for company would be nice.

Sano sat himself across her and clapped his hands together before sniffing the air appreciatively, and said, "Do you know that sometimes, while I'm lost in the forest or in the mountains, or just when I'm particularly hungry, I think about your cooking?"Megumi flushed at this unabashed compliment and tried to think up a witty, scathing reply to hide her embarrassment, but couldn't, and simply said, "Well, Rooster, I haven't had anyone eat anything with me in a while, much less anyone to enjoy my cooking with, so dig in—and you'll do the dishes after." Megumi laughed a little nervously, unused to the forced mockery in her tone, which had gone badly out of practice since she moved to Aizu and Sano left. Sano shrugged and ate heartily at her signal, complimenting her cooking with every bite. Megumi relaxed, and ate and laughed at Sano's antics, simply enjoying watching someone else enjoy her cooking so thoroughly.

While Sano was hungrily eyeing her share of _onigiri,_ Megumi asked, "So what's the story here, Rooster?"

Sano chewed up his last serving well and swallowed, then answered. "I got homesick."

Megumi waited patiently for him to continue, but when he didn't, she said, "Well, it sure takes you a long time to miss home. Anything else in particular that sent you back in town? And what of your case here?"

"Ah, well, that's a longer story," he began, clearing his throat, as if prepared to make this speech. "The short of it's that I did get homesick, y'know. Couldn't take thinking about Japanese food any longer, or _sake_, and you guys of course, and I got tired of always moving. I realized, after seven years, no less, that I wasn't making myself happier by being on the move all the time. Sure, I learned lotsa things, met lotsa people, saw things beyond my wildest imagination—both beautiful and ugly, mind you—but I couldn'a traded it for the simplicity of home. And don't ask me how it took seven years—time moves all funny when you're out there, when you're on the move seeing new things every second of everyday, 'time flies' is what they always say. I was young and drunk on adventure." He paused at this, seeming to remember the fondest bits of his travels, a distant look in his eyes.

"And before I knew it I had grown a beard, and I was on my third continent, and when I was alone in the middle'o nowhere that's when it hit me that one day I'll go home and find everything all different, no place for the gangster who'd left it so suddenly years ago. And on my last trip to China, I realized that if I hurried home, there might still be a bit of how I remembered things to be, and that as I am now, I could try to start over here.

"As for my case, well, I worked for some time in Hong Kong under a man who works in the government here. We became fast friends because I was the only one hanging about him who spoke Japanese. Kind of a sensitive guy, you see. And one day I asked if he knew of any news about Himura Kenshin, the Battousai, back when Kenshin was still alive… He didn't have news, but he knew about him, alrigh'. I talked a lot about how we were all friends and stuff, and he found out why I fled Japan in the first place. Turns out he also didn't think much of that politician who's after me, and said he would try to clear up my name after hearing what really happened. I didn't hope much, y'know, just sorta pushed it at the back of my mind for years, travelled further across Asia, and when I made up my mind to go home, I paid him a visit in Hong Kong right before coming here. The rest is history."

Megumi nodded slowly as she took in his story. "That's it, then? Well, that was pretty convenient, wasn't it? Only, I would've guessed something much more important than homesickness would have finally driven you home. Seems to cheapen it, the way you say it, if you ask me. Guess I expected too much for a Rooster-brain, huh?" At this, she attempted a weak version of her fox-laugh, and flushed at the indignity of it when she saw him looking at her like she had a second head. She hadn't used such a flagrant display of her old self in a long while, now.

Sano barked out a hearty laugh at her expense, seeing Megumi's awkwardness. He wiped at his tearing eyes. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just never thought you'd still bother with that old stuff with me, 'is all." He started to clear up the table as he explained, noting the look of surprise on her face, but choosing not to comment.

"I mean, I didn't think I was that special, not to you at least, but wow—somehow I'm happier than I should be, I don't get it," he chuckled further.

Megumi was at a loss. "What do you mean?" she asked irritably, attempting to intimidate him into stopping his inexplicable mirth.

"'Know how you always say I'm stupid? Well, I've never felt stupider than I did when I came to Tokyo two weeks ago," he said. "I stopped at the dojo expecting to see Kenshin, Jou-chan, and Yahiko about their usual business. Of course I was being stupid. But I couldn't help it, it's the only memory of Tokyo that I have," he said, scratching at the back of his head in a display of his bewilderment.

"Anyway, imagine my shock when I found a_ bokken_-wielding Kenji being taught by an oversized Yahiko, a pregnant Tsubame carrying a bundle of Kaori, and a dozen students at the dojo. I mean, how weird is that? Then a few days after, old Genzai comes by to bring the girls by, except _they're not girls anymore_," he paused to emphasize this, then added,  
And not-so-little Ayame is becoming quite the looker, too. I saw the dojo practically stop for her," he laughed. "And when I tried to give Yahiko a ruffle in the hair, the students looked like they were going to pass out from shock. I also heard later on that Aoshi and Misao are married, what gives?"

Megumi rolled her eyes impatiently. "Hm. Genius, why didn't you bring Ayame with you when you came here? She's due back here before winter starts, and it'd be a hassle for Genzai-sensei to have to bring her all the way here," she said. Seeing the look of incomprehension on his face, she explained, "She studies medicine now. She goes back and forth between here with me and in Tokyo with her grandfather."

At this, Sano tensed up considerably. "Oh, I uh… I didn't actually get to say goodbye to them before coming here. Sort of…_ rushed_ to Aizu, actually. Sorry. And I made most of the journey on foot, it wouldn't have been comfortable for her, so, uh… sorry."

Megumi's eyes were in danger of falling out from her surprise. "You what? Seven years and you're still an idiot enough to _run to Aizu_?" She couldn't believe her own declaration, and she burst out laughing. It was oddly flattering, she admitted to herself, but its merit was stamped out by her judgment that it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

"Well—damn it, I didn't run all the way, I took a train the farthest it could take me—anyway, when it finally dawned on me how much things have changed, I had to see you for myself. I was expecting an old maid with white hair before I saw you at the gate—" Megumi chucked a bowl at him for this. "—I wasn't finished! Of course, instead I saw you like that and I—something clicked, you know, like I'm home, I'm really home…" he trailed off in a murmur that Megumi didn't catch, and he looked like he was thinking very hard about something.

"Saw me like what, pray tell?" she challenged instead.

Sano stared at her and cocked his head to the side as if studying her, and said, "Like _that_," he motioned vaguely at her. "The same Fox, just _different_. I don't know." Megumi gave him a stern look.

He visibly shook himself out of his stupor and gathered the tray of bowls to clean them up in the back room, changing the topic as hastily as he had started it. "I need a place to stay, Megumi. Could you lend me a room?"

Megumi didn't entirely trust her china with him, but he seemed determined to keep his end of the deal of dinner by cleaning up, and oddly, staying away from her for a while. She sighed. "I suppose you must be tired from _running to Aizu_." She rolled her eyes. "You can leave those to be washed tomorrow when you've rested. Come, I'll show you to your room."

She walked him along the hallways to stop in front of the patient room farthest from her personal quarters. She showed him where he could put his belongings, and wished him good night, before shutting the _shoji_ behind her.

Before she got very far, she heard him sigh from the other side of the paper-thin door, muttering something that got lost in the wind, which sounded suspiciously like a wistful, "I missed you, Kitsune."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I just realized that the version of the first chapter posted here before this was the wrong, incomplete version. It was about 1,000 words short. Nobody seemed to notice the inconsistency in the storytelling in that one, though, so perhaps you don't have to read it again if you've come for this chapter. I'm re-uploading the first chapter with the correct file at the time of this posting. My apologies. Enjoy the second chapter!

**Changes, Chances  
**_by Wordfish_

**Chapter 2**

* * *

The area surrounding the Takani Clinic in Aizu was rife with fresh news of the stranger that had arrived three days prior. When the rains had momentarily ceased, more people were out in the streets to go about their daily business, which included (for the housewives), gossip. Given that the days were becoming far warmer in June in contrast to its humid nights, Megumi had an expected increase in visitors bearing health complaints. However, these complaints featured a greater number of pettier issues such as mosquito bites and even scraped knees, leading Megumi to the suspicion that the townsfolk came mostly to see for themselves the rumored tall, dark, and handsome stranger that had mysteriously come to stay with the respected Takani.

Megumi didn't usually mind this much activity in the clinic because it meant marginally increased earnings for her humble practice, but when she had started needing Sano to help her deal with the sheer number of (mostly female) 'patients', the derision started becoming ridiculous.

Sano was patiently and—Megumi was annoyed to note—charmingly attending to the females who had queued over to him while Megumi barked out instructions sharply, making her look like an uptight, unlikeable character next to the placid Sano who had the gall to look even more attention-grabbing in his western-style travel cloak.

The situation wasn't helped any by patients intermittently asking what Megumi was sparingly asked back in Tokyo: "_Sensei_, is he your lover?", and on Sano's side, "_Nii-san_, are you the reason_ Sensei_ turns down all her suitors?" questions that were fervently denied by Megumi, but was merely laughed off by Sanosuke.

When it was time to close the clinic, Megumi noticed that the patients from earlier were still hovering about Sano and asking him all sorts of questions. Megumi rolled her eyes and set to clearing out her workspace, and Sano finally apologized to the girls and told them that it would be best to head home before dark.

Still nonplussed by the day's flurry of unusual activity, Megumi rubbed the tiredness out of her eyes, trying to decide whether to scold Sano for entertaining gossip or to thank him for the novelty of his presence bringing in good business for the day.

"Well, someone sure enjoyed being popular!" Megumi remarked, making no move to hide the sarcasm in her tone.

"Jealous?" Sano quipped, then at the annoyed look on her face, he winked and light-heartedly said, "Don't look so glum, Kitsune. They'll get tired of me too, someday. The ladies only seemed to be concerned about the possibility of you having a secret love-affair, and the guys looked like they only wanted to know if it was true, or if they still had a chance."

Sano got up and stretched his legs, then proceeded to help Megumi clean up. "Of course, dunno why they'd want to marry a fox who's way past her marrying age, but—"

Sano didn't have the chance to complete his thought, because just as had been about to put bottled salves back in the shelves, Megumi chucked a small bottle of antiseptic in his direction. Sano caught it, then balked at the sight of Megumi burning in rage, although a smirk was evidently trying to escape his lips.

"Why you—I've told you before, I'll marry whenever I want to, you ungrateful _Rooster_—"

"Relax; I was only teasing you, you know I didn't mean that, _Sensei_," he assured her, raising his arms in a gesture of mock surrender. And while Megumi was still trying to work out why on earth she should believe him, he quickly added, "I'll draw you a bath if you want one, just to prove it!

"…I'll even join you, if you ask nicely."

Unfortunately for Megumi, there was nothing near enough to chuck at Sano, so she settled with rolling her eyes and stalking off as far away from him as possible.

But she learned later that Sano did come through with his offer, and now Megumi was soaking in the _furo _wondering tritely about which part of the world Sano had learned the concept of apologies from.

However, disliking that she found herself thinking about the Rooster again just as often when he wasn't there and when he _was _there, Megumi tried instead to think of what would be good to cook for dinner, when she heard the sound of wood being moved.

She listened for a while to the rhythmic _thunking _from outside, basking in the welcome warmth of her hot bath, before realizing incredulously that Sano had just added to and probably adjusted the heat of the bath. Before she had time to wonder how any Sano she knew would have the forethought to do something like that, she heard more _thunking _sounds of another nature coming from outside the bath.

Sano now seemed to be chopping more wood. _Of his own accord._

While it was admittedly a nice kind of bewilderment, Megumi found herself so completely overthrown by this unexpected gesture that she was tempted to shake him and ask him what he'd done with the real Sano, the Sano she knew. She stayed in the bath for another half-hour, trying in vain to quiet her thoughts and to simply unwind from the day's stress, and finally gave up.

Perhaps travelling did something to a man, and this man had not just travelled but _lived _to travel. _For seven years,_ her mind repeated to her, and was it so difficult to think that he could have changed?

Megumi stepped out of the bath feeling more subdued nonetheless, and was headed to the kitchen to start on dinner, when she passed by the _tatami _room to find Sano sitting calmly in the dining area.

And there, in the center of the table, laid what looked to be a hot, just-cooked dinner.

Megumi was beside herself with incredulity. She found herself stepping back slightly and placing the balls of her palm on her forehead, as if to withhold a forthcoming headache.

"No way—_no way, no way—_first, you_ apologize_ for teasing me, then you draw me a bath for it, keep it warm while I was sitting there thinking why you would do such a thing in the first place, and then, _and then, _Rooster… you actually _cooked_? Who are you!"

Sano merely uncrossed his arms, cocked his head to the side, then said, "Sit down before this gets too cold, I smell rain coming in and it might be a chilly night. Best get drinking our hot soup before that.

"And what—you don't think I survived the world for seven years without learning to pick up after myself, do ya? Don't worry about it too much; this stuff's nothing to me." Then, looking slightly offended but amused, he added, "You _could _stop looking so shocked, you know. You make me look like I used to be a barbarian or something."

Megumi didn't move from her place by the hallway for a few moments, merely stopped to stare at him like she didn't hear a word he had said. After a while, deciding there was no use stopping the inevitable, she rolled her eyes and said, "You're incorrigible," and proceeded to sit beside him on the table.

"So, out with it, Rooster. What do you want?"

Sano didn't take the bait, which seemed unusual to Megumi, but instead offered her the first pick of the foreign-looking dish that he had cooked. "Whatever that means," he said, "I'm sure you'll forget about it soon enough. Here, try these."

The first dish contained what looked to be a straightforward mix of scrambled egg and tomatoes, and the second one a vegetable dish. She looked at it and at him dubiously. "What is it?"

Sano seemed almost embarrassed that his cooking was being put under her scrutiny, and he presented some complicated-sounding Chinese names by way of explanation, which made no sense to her until he said that the eggs were meant to be eaten with the stir-fry vegetables, which were spicy, and along with rice. "I used to eat this a lot in Beijing. It's nothing special, but it's fast to make and well, I didn't know what else to make with what was in the kitchen already, so…"

Megumi tried it, and it wasn't as bad as she realized she was hoping it would be. She was more astounded that he, Sagara Sanosuke, ex-fighter-for-hire, gangster and gambler supreme, had cooked at all, and she remembered herself and thanked him for it.

The dinner generally passed without fuss once Sano seemed assured that his cooking wasn't being rejected, and they talked of small things, such as stories from the day's patients, peppered with trivia Megumi could provide about specific patients or Sano's encounters with similar people in his travels.

When they had done clearing up the table (Sano, of course,_ helped_), Megumi finally received what she'd been secretly hoping for – a trace of the old Sano. He had declared nonchalantly that he was going out. At night.

Tired from the day's incessant activity and grateful for the sudden solitude, Megumi finally retired to bed a few moments after the Rooster's departure, comforted by this sudden predictability.

* * *

Megumi awoke near dawn from a dream that didn't allow her to slip back into sleep as she would have liked. The imagery of the dream was straightforward: she could make out the figure of Ken-san staring out into the horizon of some river, his back turned to her. She steadily approached him as if there were some grave purpose that would be achieved by doing so, but the red-haired figure of Kenshin ignored her completely. Just when she'd been about to nudge him, he turned around to face her, and suddenly Kenshin was Sano—that older, more somber-looking stranger that had come to her house a few days ago. And then she was awake.

She supposed the dream could have some implied meaning of sorts here and there, but she found that train of thought somewhat embarrassing to follow, even in the privacy of her own mind. _What with her age, _as the Rooster would so elegantly put it. So she got up from her _futon_ on the pretense that she needed to relieve herself.

Sanosuke didn't seem to be home yet ('Why, the sun will be up in a few hours!', she thought incredulously), and since she was already up anyway, she thought she might as well make tea and rice cakes for the both of them in case he came back in time for it.

Megumi went about her usual morning routine pretending to herself that she wasn't anxious for the Rooster's whereabouts. She freshened up, changed into her _hakama_, combed her hair, watered her plants, and waited for the sun to start peeking through the clouds.

In his words, the Rooster had said that he wanted to 'check out' the nights of Aizu, and while Megumi immediately recognized the euphemism for what was undoubtedly a search for _sake_ and dice and _kami_-know-what-else, she sincerely hoped (for her reputation's sake) that he hadn't gotten into any trouble overnight. Well, _serious _trouble, at least. Hoping for no trouble at all from the Chicken Head was like asking for a miracle, she supposed.

Finally, while beginning to relax into her morning tea and light medical reading, the aforementioned Chicken Head turned up.

"Good morning, sunshine," he greeted as he swung the gates open, ambling slightly as if dazed. The smell of _sake _instantly greeted Megumi as he approached her in the _tatami _room.

"I see you've found the nights of Aizu up to par," The dryness of Megumi's disapproving comment satisfied her to a degree she couldn't fully justify, but she nonetheless prepared a serving of tea for him.

Sano arranged a good-humored sour expression on his face as a reply to her comment, plopped down beside her, and let an exaggerated sigh escape his lips. "What a beautiful sight to come home to, your foxy face scowling at me. Wouldn't have it any other way," he said, taking the cup that was laid out for him.

He didn't drink immediately, only stared at her like there was something he wanted to unearth from her face just by looking at it. Naturally, Megumi pretended that she didn't notice this, her eyes firmly fixed on her medical texts.

Sano set his cup back down rather loudly after some time, startling her.

"Except_… _Come here," the ex-gangster stood abruptly, beckoning Megumi to do the same. Before she could protest and pretend to ignore him, though, he had taken a hold of her wrist and was tugging at it, like a father would a stubborn child. The shamelessness of this behavior annoyed her more than she could say; usually nobody got away with touching her in such a way that underscored a power relation that worked clearly against her, and anyway, usually nobody got away with touching her in the first place. But as soon as he had gotten her on her feet, he was quick to withdraw his hand and replace it at the small of her back (again, another presumptuous placement) to lead her towards the _engawa_.

Megumi swatted at his hand impatiently. "Rooster, what do you think—"

"You know, Megitsune, I've always wondered about what you've done with the last seven years," Sano wondered out loud, that _sake_-induced dazed look still in his eyes. He stared at her intently as if willing her to make sense, as if _she _didn't make sense, and it annoyed Megumi.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she challenged defensively.

"Come sit with me here, and let's have tea," at this, he sat on the edge of the _engawa _and relaxed against the wooden column next to him, patting the spot on the other side of the column for her to sit on.

"—But we already were—that tea and those rice cakes, they didn't make themselves, you know—"

"—Yeah, I know, so let me show you how to eat them, Fox. Sit here already, why don't ya?"

Megumi was too baffled and too curious about what was going on through the Rooster's drunken mind to properly object further. She sat beside him, and he handed her the tea she'd been drinking a while ago. She sipped it gingerly, not having much else to do.

Nobody spoke for a while, and she turned to look at him only when she'd heard him release another sigh. "Look at that… I'd spend the rest of my life staring at that if it didn't always disappear so quickly."

Megumi turned to him to ask what on earth he was talking about, and following his wistful (_wistful!_) gaze, she found that he was staring at the line of the horizon. She looked at it resentfully, wondering if this everyday-occurring-scene had been worth him practically dragging her to _her engawa _so shamelessly.

Sano sighed again, and Megumi rolled her eyes to herself at it. "They don't look like this anywhere else I've been to," he began. "Sunrises, I mean. Those greens and blues, and oranges, I guess they must've known what they were talking 'bout when they called this place the Land of the Rising Sun, or something." And he looked at her over the wood column that separated them, a disarmingly determined look in his gaze.

"_Naa, _tell me you often come out here to see this, in the mornings of those seven years. I always imagined that you do," he said, with a small smile on his lips, but Megumi had the impression that he was talking more to himself than to her.

Megumi found a scowl lining her face, and caught herself before Sano saw it. As a matter of fact, she didn't 'often come out here to see this' like he did, like a lunatic drunk with some wistful _spiritual _mist in his eyes, at least not anymore, and if she ever did in those early parts of the seven years, she found it more convenient to forget, and forget she did. What was there to see in those damned sunrises, except some combination of colors that never failed to lead anyone who looked at it to hope, to believe, to delude themselves of a future horizon where their every secret desire was fulfilled, when it never was? It was wasteful, and painful.

No, she had not needed the use of such pompous lies, not since she went here to find that her rumored brother had never been here, not since Kenshin and Kaoru passed away, and not since the friend who left hadn't come back after each year that they'd waited…

Megumi stood up, outraged at herself for willing such a trail of thought to linger, and at the Rooster who had _some nerve _to presume things he had no right to expect of her. What business did he have to think that she had been wasting her time on the things _he _liked to do, things _he _expected other people (her) ought to do as well, things that failed her while they delighted him? Who was he, after all, but a vagrant who had had seven years' luxury of running away from every little thing that she had to face?

Sanosuke seemed to sense the shift in mood from her, and stood up as well. She turned to walk out on the incredulity of his presumptuous words, words that angered and embittered her to a degree she could not fully make sense of. She then remembered herself and intended to just ask _him_ to leave; it was her home after all, but as she was about to turn back to him to do just that, he had already reached out to her, thinking that she was intent on walking out.

The congruent force of her intent to go towards him and him pulling her to him, in the end, was greater than what her _geta _and the constricting girth of her skirts allowed her to maneuver with, and she started to stumble forward.

Things happened very fast. In the span of time that she tried to keep her footing, the Rooster had moved forward to support her in the assumption that she would fall, and this sudden movement indeed caused her to. She landed in a compromising embrace-like stance with him at the same moment that the sound of something dropping to the ground prompted them to look towards the direction of the sound, near the gates. A young woman Megumi recognized as a patient from yesterday was as red in the face as Megumi used to see Kaoru when they talked of Kenshin. She seemed to have dropped whatever she was carrying at having walked-in on what she thought was a romantic encounter between the famed doctor and the traveler, and promptly bolted the way she had probably come from, presumably to share the news with anyone who cared to listen. Megumi went ashen from the suspicion that that would be a sizeable number of gossip-hungry folk.

There was really only one reasonable thing to do.

"OUT!" Megumi barked at Sano when they had recovered from things. "OUT, ROOSTER, AND DON'T THINK OF COMING BACK, DO YOU HEAR ME?"

Sano looked like he very much wanted to try to defend himself, but smartly refrained from doing so. He let Megumi lead him out the gates by the ear, wincing as she put all her effort into slamming the gates in his face.

She didn't care what he did with his life from then on, she decided. If he even had money on his person, she didn't care, seeing as she would never fetch his belongings for him from his appointed room in her clinic, wondering pointedly if he had money at all, even there. He survived the wilderness for seven years, whichever mountain or cave he'd travelled to, so he'd be fine in the streets of Aizu. Gods bless his unbelievable, incorrigible, insensitive, drunk Rooster soul.

Try as she might, Megumi could not have kept the scowl off her face or the snap in her tone during the rest of the day in the clinic, only stopping to momentarily correct her demeanor when a patient would reluctantly ask her if she was 'quite feeling alright', never mind that they had already seemed to notice the lack of the Western-cloak-wielding traveler and put two and two together. That, or the girl who had mistakenly seen them locked in what Megumi assumed she would be describing as 'a passionate embrace' had gone about her predictable duty as a rumormonger.

In any case, late in the afternoon when the usual patients had resorted to pointedly avoiding her clinic for fear of her wrath, she found herself momentarily distracted by the arrival of a letter.

It was from Yahiko, dated two days ago. Megumi impatiently unfolded the letter and began to read, after closing the clinic for the rest of the day.

_Dear Megumi,_

_First, I'm sorry about the timing of this letter. There's no way that this letter could have reached you before our Chicken Head reaches you first, and I can guess how annoyed you must be right now. The Idiot left very early in the morning before we got your last letter, and whether he ran to Aizu or took a carriage, I'm sure he got there before this letter did. So, I'm really sorry that you've had to deal with Sanosuke a day or two earlier and _without warning.

_I guess you know what I'm talking about; you've probably seen by now, the man is wilder and more determined than he used to be (and that's saying a lot). Tsubame and I have told him to await an invitation from you before disturbing you over there; said you liked your peace and isolation and all. But the night before he left, he said something about not being able 'to take it anymore', 'waited too long,' and 'I've got to see the Fox'. I asked if his hand was alright. It seemed okay. Whatever it was that he wanted so badly to see you about, I hope it's not what Tsubame and I suspect it is: if he—sorry if this isn't the case (…yet)—asks you to _marry him_, or anything like that, feel free to send him back here so I could beat him up good. Unless, of course you want to. Marry Sano, that is. Or something like it._

_The fact that you haven't thrown this letter away yet means you might already have a sense of what I'm talking about. What I mean is this: Sano, though he can sometimes act surprisingly changed and mature, worries me a bit. He was pretty insistent, Megumi; kept asking stuff about you right after he'd had his first meal back with us. I say something's fishy, the way it's always been with him and you (don't give this letter _that look)_, but it's weirder now, with him. Somehow. I'm not sure he completely understands yet how much things have changed with us. Or with you, so I don't think he has any business asking for your hand in marriage or anything rash and stupid like that. I think he might still be thinking that things between the two of you would stay the same, the way he remembers them, when he saw how different things were here. I dunno. He made no secret of wondering out loud about you, until Tsubame wanted to come fetch you herself so he would stop being the lovesick dog that he was being all the time. I'm rolling my eyes, yes._

_But I'm your friend, Megumi, and even if I'm in no position to tell you what to do if he does crack after all and confesses Sano-like passionate love for you, I've been your friend for longer now than him so try to think of this as friendly concern from me. I was planning on giving him a good long talking-to about this, before he snuck out of the dojo early today. I don't think he'll come back to Tokyo soon, as long as he hasn't accomplished what he probably returned to Japan for (ugh). But when you do or he does, or the both of you do, and I find out that he's hurt you or made you cry, I promise to beat him within an inch of his life._

_Write if you need help with that Rooster._

_Yahiko_

_P.S. Ack, the thought of a grown, lovesick Sano sickens _me. _I can't believe I wrote this letter at all. Washing my hands and eyes. Take care of yourself._


	3. Chapter 3

**Changes, Chances  
**_by Wordfish_

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Sanosuke awoke near dusk to an empty stomach and a buzzing headache. He had fallen asleep where he'd decided to while away the hours since the doctor had kicked him out, which meant he was currently in a bulrush-overridden riverbank, a respectable distance from the clinic. He sat up, massaging the headache away from his temples, and wondered what he ought to do.

He knew there was no use in confronting the Fox at the moment, or in the near future for that matter. What she'd call a 'damage to her reputation' would surely haunt her for weeks. He sighed. The damned woman ought to loosen up a bit, to not take herself _that_ seriously. That much was clear—except the uptight woman had needed to 'loosen up a bit' even before he'd left seven years ago. He had hoped that she would have improved on that in those seven years, but instead it seems as if she had gone in the opposite direction.

Sanosuke found himself sighing again, and paused to consider if he was being selfish, expecting things like that from the Fox.

Seven years was an awfully long time, seen from the way things were going now. But those same years oddly felt like months to him, where he'd been scaling the globe for whatever reason seemed sensible at the moment. One reason, one day, and when the course was run, it was easy to convince oneself that the next challenge was a non-negotiable matter of life-and-death, and thus, on to the next reasons, down the list, until a day became a month and months became years. Whatever he thought he'd learned out there seemed not to make sense here, or was it everyone else who needed to change?

The journey back to Japan had been the most difficult leg of his travels. When elsewhere, he had been free to the point of irresponsibility and passivity, the trip home held a challenge of the opposite nature, one that he was beginning to see he was unready for. Things were expected of him now, he was sure. How much he'd actually lived up to those expectations upon his arrival, or _what _those expectations were in the first place, is another matter. He had also come home having vague expectations in mind, which, if he were to be honest with himself, were starting to look less and less sensible now. It involved a vague picture of home, and an even vaguer picture of what that home might actually look like and who might be in it. The old Kenshin-_gumi_ was done for, how could he deny that? In its place was a new family, a new context, years of history which there was no way for him to have been a part of—and entirely different people from who they were seven years ago, who he had once childishly believed they would always be. He wasn't particularly expecting to be welcomed with open arms and no questions by the people he had so unceremoniously left behind, but even without the physical aspect of a home, he had hoped to find at least an inkling of that feeling which he had never found in his seven years of wandering.

There was a reason things weren't working up to be how he'd imagined them to be, and he had better do something about it. He had come back for a reason, no matter that those reasons started out from the misinformed longings of a homesick vagabond. He could learn. He wanted to.

Sanosuke got up, dusted his hands against the back of his pants, and stared at the quiet creek as if it ought to give him some sort of affirmation. It didn't, but he'd made up his mind, for whatever that was worth—he had never really been much of a thinker, but when his mind was set, even a good _Futae no Kiwami _to the head couldn't change it. Winging this return was no longer an option. He had work to do, and a place to earn here. The time for wandering was over.

* * *

Two weeks had gone by and Sanosuke had not once been sighted near the premises of the Takani Clinic, and talk of him had not reached Megumi's ears once she had made it clear to a particularly brave patient who had asked her about it that no, she was not 'consorting with the strange-yet-handsome man', and that he was just an old friend from Tokyo, kindly refrain from asking personal questions when in the clinic's premises, thank you.

The same patient once tried to pry something out of her by informing her that the 'dreamy man' had set himself up living in the inn near the river, and taking up with the landlord by giving all sorts of design advice for a western-style house that he was planning on building as an annex to the inn. "Oh, and, he also does all the heavy construction stuff that the other workers can't do, like lifting all those things all at once. He's amazing, isn't he, _ne, Sensei_?", which Megumi replied to with a shrug and her coldest, "He's a brute, of course he can do things normal people can't," and no one had dared ask her more since then.

While thankful for the near-dead silence around her clinic in the past week, Megumi could not shrug off the feeling that it was becoming stiflingly quiet around the place, as if all the patients knew that they should be tiptoeing around her. Near the third week she was ready to bite the head off of any patient who so much as _looked_ at her with an unvoiced question in their mind.

It was infuriating to an inexplicable degree, that she sometimes caught herself on the edge waiting for an explosion of news or gossip or whatever, or an explosion of Rooster knocking down her gates, or an explosion of anything, really, because his infuriatingly western-style bag was still laying there in her spare bedroom and every time she passed it, her eyebrows would twitch in annoyance. She wished he would just show up and claim it, leave, and go back running across whatever _jungle_ he liked best as long as it wasn't in Aizu.

Remembering Yahiko's words was not helping her ignore thoughts she would have liked kept in a box and filed neatly away, such as her nagging suspicions about why Sanosuke had come to Aizu at all. It was clear that he didn't just drop by for a random visit, with him needlessly setting up camp in the town inn after all this time. His arrival had brewed a storm in her, one that she didn't need and didn't see any good use for. It was a hassle, frivolous, childish, and disruptive—everything that she remembered the Rooster to be from before he left, even if he had shown signs of having changed since.

Whatever the Rooster was thinking was as inaccessible to her as ever—she never understood what made the man tick, why he did stupid things like constantly break his hand, drink to a stupor, gamble, or show up on her doorstep and cook dinner for her and keep her bath warm, and _staying in the fringes of her life _without any good reason to. Except, at the back of her mind, she knew that _she_ was the reason, but not why he thought it was even worth all the effort, or to what exact end his tiny Rooster brain was working towards. This Sanosuke was a stranger, and it frustrated her that she could not keep his sudden appearance filed at the back of her mind without its lumbering and insistent presence driving her insane.

She would definitely not seek him out, however, no matter how on-edge it drove her. It was probably only a temporary nuisance, anyway. There was no satisfaction to be had in trying to decode the stranger, nor were there benefits for her to convince herself otherwise. Indulging the illogical whims of a vagabond (no matter how mysterious or intriguing) who would probably get bored sitting in one place for five seconds was time-consuming, and she simply did not have the time. There were patients to attend to; she was too old for frivolities and seeking out troubles that could be resolved with a no-nonsense attitude in the first place.

Megumi closed up the clinic early that Sunday. Less-pressing medical concerns would have to wait for the next day, and emergencies could be attended to if they were indeed emergencies. She refreshed her cup of tea and set about the remainder of her daily routine: a quick soak in the bath, an even quicker supper, one last cup of calming tea, and then bed.

Before she had even slipped into sleep, however, a series of thundering knocks shook her out of her daze, followed by alarmed shouts of, "_Sensei! Sensei!"_

Not waiting for further details, Megumi ran to grab her doctor's smock and put it over her evening_ kimono. _A flustered young man, possibly in his late teens, was looking out of his depths and inexpressibly glad to see her step out to meet him.

"_Sensei, _I'm so sorry to disturb you like this," he said, while trying to catch his breath. "I'm from the next town. The doctor there is away right now and this was the next clinic I was pointed to. Please—me wife is 'bout to give birth I think—I dunno what to do,"

Megumi was already out of the gate with him even before he finished explaining, and locking up. "Did her water break? Was she having contractions? Is someone with her now?"

The poor young man stood there looking embarrassed to not know how to answer her questions, but she ploughed on nonetheless. "Never mind; just calm down and take me to her. I suppose this is your first child?" she added, sending him a comforting smile in the hopes that it would get him to relax.

Nodding but looking too wrought with nerves to say much else, the young man prepared the horse he had brought to have Megumi sit side-saddle. He hopped on the bare back of the horse to keep a respectable distance away from her, apologizing repeatedly for her having to ride this way but assured her that the destination was not too far. He explained that he had had to borrow a horse just to get here, and since he couldn't bring his hysterical wife on horseback, he was left with no choice but to bring Megumi to her.

Megumi kept asking him questions to keep him distracted and calmer. The last thing she needed while birthing what she assumed to be a young, inexperienced mother, was to have an equally frantic and nervous husband looming about. She learned from him that her water had broken but they hadn't known what it meant until she started having contractions, and that that was when he took her to the town's clinic only to find out that there was no doctor there at the moment, and that he had to leave his wife in a nearby inn because she could not walk all the way back to their house which was further off in the rice-growing outskirts of town. He told Megumi that he had left his wife in the care of the landlord's wife and a fellow guest who had suggested to him to borrow the inn's horse and find the Takani Clinic.

"Was a big mess. I was. Think we woke the whole inn. Hey, come to think of it, I coulda asked the fellow to fetch you instead so I could stay with me wife. Guess he sent me 'way on purpose to keep peace there 'n all that," he added, laughing nervously. With Megumi's steady questioning, the young man considerably calmed down when they arrived at their destination.

To her surprise, the inn was actually her town's inn, the one her patient had described to be where the ex-gangster was currently working and staying. The Mimura clinic was indeed only a little ways off of this path, though formally being part of the next town.

A small gathering of curious neighbors had formed near the entrance of the inn, with confused whispers following the arrival of the doctor. A woman's screams could be heard renting the night air, which Megumi guessed had roused the neighbors.

"_Oi_, move aside, the doctor is here!" shouted the young man, but he didn't need to. Everyone in this town knew who Megumi was, and the small crowd was already parting as soon as the expecting father had helped her off the horse.

He led her through the corridors to a nondescript room near the back, where the inn's other awakened patrons had congregated trying to get the pregnant woman to calm down. She was thrashing and screaming for what Megumi assumed to be her husband's name, "Kikujiro", peppered with random threats as to what she would do to him if he wasn't there soon. The Kikujiro in question sprinted ahead of Megumi into the middle of the floor where his angry, laboring wife lay, and the circle opened to let Megumi pass.

The first thing she actually took notice of was the big form of Sagara Sanosuke sitting cross-legged on the opposite side, with his left hand trapped (or offered?) to the soon-to-be young mother as a squeezing stress-relief tool. By the looks of his reddening hand, she had been at it for a while, although she didn't seem to be taking much notice of any potential damage to the ex-gangster.

On the other side was who Megumi assumed to be the landlord's wife, who was wiping the forehead of the young woman with a washcloth. Megumi nodded in approval, and asked her for a fresh basin of warm water and some more washcloths, and asked Kikujiro to herd everyone else away from the room. She pointedly looked at Sanosuke, who, for his part, seemed unwilling to witness a live birthing, but the woman would not let his hand go until Kikujiro replaced his role of being a squeeze tool, which later turned out to be too much to ask of him due to the unexpected strength of his wife's squeezing.

With everyone apart from the couple and the landlord's wife out of the room, and Megumi's administered mild sedative effectively taking root, the entire process was over in a few hours. It took longer than was usual, as it was difficult to instruct a slightly drugged patient to push properly, but it seemed the better choice to keep the young woman from wasting too much energy on screaming and thrashing and squeezing the life out of poor Kikujiro's hand.

When Megumi handed him their tiny, wailing, prune-faced daughter, Kikujiro burst into tears. His wife was still spaced-out but was able to mutter her gratitude, falling fast asleep with the newborn in a matter of a few minutes while Megumi and the landlord's wife were cleaning her up. With Kikujiro's profuse promises of gradually paying Megumi back in kind with rice (as it was their only livelihood), and Megumi having assured him that it was quite alright, the long night was ended.

Megumi stepped out of the room intending to ask for a room of her own (she refused when Kikujiro offered to bring her back to the clinic; it was unthinkable to keep the new family apart on their first night together, and dawn was just a few hours away anyway), she was met by Sanosuke who seemed to have waited the whole time on the _engawa_ at the end of the corridor.

"You were great back there—as usual," he began, a big, rather nervous smile on his face. "I was listening to you reasoning with the wailing girl before you drugged her," he chuckled. "The little thing's got a lot of spirit, huh. And the guy was a right mess, so I sent him off to find ya. He was all over the place when he brought her here, didn't have a clue what to do. Knew you would do a good job of it."

"It was good of you to have thought of that," she said. "You know, I now have a little girl named after me, if that's any consolation for the ruckus that that young family made tonight."

Sanosuke let out a hearty laugh. "You serious? Well, that seems about right, doesn't it? Mouthy little girl named after a sharp-tongued doctor, wow, now that's a lot to live up to for the little devil," he said, voice sounding a little too loud, belying a nervousness that was too obvious for Megumi to ignore and not feel a little sorry for.

She chose to ignore the comment, feeling rather tired from the long day and not in the mood to milk his sudden nervousness around her. She glanced at him, seeing him awkwardly fidgeting with his hands in his pockets, waiting for a reaction from her by which he could judge his next moves.

"Sano," she said, seeing the tall man stiffen a little bit at her serious tone. "I'm tired—really tired. Would you mind walking me home instead? I'd originally planned on staying the night here but I much prefer my own _futon_, to be honest."

Sanosuke seemed taken aback by the honest and plain request, and after a quick lapse in his scripted composure, he visibly relaxed, sending a half-smile towards her. "Don't worry about it—I was going to offer to anyway," he said, beginning to walk towards the road. Megumi followed wordlessly, falling into step beside the tall man. She let him lead the way so she could relax and enjoy a mindless stroll on account of her sleeplessness, and when she took notice of their surroundings, she appreciated that he chose to walk along the river road, away from the main road where the night houses and drinking dens hosted the only people who were still awake at this hour, despite it being the shortest route to the clinic.

The walk passed without incident, and neither talked. Megumi noted that it was a nice change, them keeping silent. It never occurred to her that a silent walk could be enjoyed by two people, each with their minds to their own world of thoughts, yet not be entirely alone all the same. She appreciated the familiar memory of him walking her home on nights like this, although the past ones seemed like a lifetime ago and by two very different people. He'd walk her to and from emergency calls like this one back in Tokyo, when he happened to be in the Oguni Clinic at the time of such calls. Without exceptions, he'd also always been the one to walk her, Ayame and Suzume when gatherings at the dojo ended past dusk.

It was one of the things she missed most when she came up to Aizu to start her own practice. Granted, Aizu was a much safer, sleepier rural town compared to the busy Tokyo, but she had never made friends here to share private moments with such as this. Compared to Tokyo, Aizu was a cold and lonely place, and the town looked up to her and her family too much to get any friendlier than was necessary; or was it because she never let herself?

"Megumi? We're here," he called, and when she snapped out of her reverie, she found them approaching the Takani Clinic's gates.

"Right, thanks," she said, trying in vain to stifle an ungracious yawn.

"You're looking pretty beat up. Have a good rest tonight, Fox. I'm staying at that inn if you need help tomorrow with anything around here—send someone to fetch me and I'm yours," he offered, a weak smile lining his stubbled face.

Megumi felt the comment passing over her head much slower than usual, emphasizing to her just how tired she really was. Dawn was only a few hours away, and she absently counted the few hours' nap she could afford before it was time to open up the clinic again.

"Your things are still here," she noted, eyes heavy with sleep.

Sano scratched at the back of his head, unsure of what to make of her words. "It's fine, most of it's for you anyway," he said. "I'll swing by some time to grab what's left of them. You go and have a good night. We don't want our doctor sick," he added good-naturedly, holding the gates open for her.

* * *

The next day, Sano found himself hanging about the area surrounding the Takani Clinic, although he didn't stop by the clinic itself. Through this, he learned that compared to that one day he helped out at the clinic, the traffic here was much, much less than what it was in Tokyo, which made him feel marginally better about Megumi not overworking herself like she used to. He thought better of revealing himself to her; he thought that she might appreciate a quiet day to herself after the previous night.

He'd continued to room at the inn, working during the day in the construction of the inn's annex wing. It kept him busy for a good twelve hours of every day, working much more than any other worker, to cover the expense of his lodging and pocket money. He was no stranger to this kind of work, as he had spent a good portion of his trip to the Americas surviving on wages for constructing odder buildings than the simple, wooden ones of his home country. In fact, he appreciated the mindless labor for what only people like him could call 'therapeutic exertion', which earned him the sweet soreness of a body worked to the ground and a mind too tired to think of much else but food and sleep.

The landlord had taken to him and adjusted his wages accordingly, earning him further popularity among the townsfolk. Soon, other people were vying for his labor, and his knack for coming up with inventive designs that incorporated exotic, western touches to traditional establishments was proving just as popular a selling point.

It was in this manner that Sanosuke had kept himself from the constant nagging temptation of seeking out the lady doctor, until they ran into each other last night. For what reason he avoided her exactly, he didn't know, but several things had become increasingly apparent despite every minute he spent keeping ridiculously busy with his work:

The first was that he could not go back to Tokyo even if it meant several free meals a day and a free bed, and good company on the side. He wouldn't be able to live with himself taking off for Aizu so abruptly without having accomplished anything here.

The second and more alarming thought was that the term 'accomplishment' had something to do with the lady doctor. In fact, it almost exclusively had everything to do with her. He wanted Megumi; being away for seven years and having his idle thoughts randomly end up involving her during all that time seems a good reason as any to be convinced that he wanted the damned woman. The problem was that the Fox that had lived in his head for all those years, kept him company through his worst days, and simultaneously represented a hope and a dream that was all at once radical yet beautiful, nostalgic, impossible, and at some parts vague and then crystal clear, was being challenged by the Megumi he had come across a few weeks ago. She was now somber, embittered, and lonely, the way he never thought the Megumi he had left behind could ever be—or was it only because he was an idiot for not seeing that she had always been headed in this direction?

He wanted to make her happy; gods only knew how much he wanted to see that foxy face light up in a smile. It made his blood simmer to think that he probably could have seen to that if he'd never left, but he knew that to assume that role was presumptuous, selfish, and intrusive of him. He wondered if she knew how much it bothered him to see her caging herself up, if she even realized that she was doing it, and for how long she was going to let herself do so.

There was nothing for it—he needed a good, long, drink.

And so Sanosuke spent the remainder of his afternoon downing jars of _sake_ with his landlord, who was very ironically named Saitou, who had begun to chant out folk songs in his drunkenness.

"You know, if I think about that other Saitou I know singing like you do, I wouldn't be able to sleep," Sanosuke said.

Saitou gave his rounded belly a hearty slap and said, "Why, he must be a charmer, that man! Only fine men are called Saitou!"

"Sure, if you count that he's the Shinsengumi Saitou who very nearly snuffed me out, that right bastard," Sanosuke said, recalling his old days in Tokyo with an inappropriate fondness. "If it wasn't for Megumi, I wouldn't be sitting out here listening to another Saitou singing," he added, chuckling, then chugging down on his liquor jar.

"Megumi? You mean our Megumi? Aizu-Megumi, _the_ Takani—that one?" Saitou asked, surprised.

"Unless you know another Megumi that can stitch through flesh like she would a kimono? Yeah, that Megumi. We had a history back there in Tokyo, she and I," he smiled, remembering fondly the time from when they'd rescued her from Kanryuu to their various, daily banters. He raised his jar. "Cheers to that foxy doctor!"

But Saitou only half-heartedly met it, turning his attention to his next question. "What kind of history, eh? Word 'round here is that she hasn't married because she was waiting—if you ask me, you seem to fit that bill, son, traveling for seven years and then showing up on her doorstep like tha'—what are you doing here drinking when there's a fine lady to be marryin'?"

Sano was prepared to answer, "By history, I mean that she attempts to kill me as often as she treats me—"

"Killed ya with love, you mean—"

"—Hey old man, isn't it way past your age for those jokes—"

"Not when I've never seen me a nicer-looking couple, you betcha," Saitou barked out a hearty laugh, and downed the remaining contents of his jar. Sano could only grin ruefully at the older man's antics. "Think fast, boy, second chances don't always come for everyone…" he trailed off.

The sound of a shoji door sliding announced the arrival of Saitou's wife, a tray of tea in tow. "I think it's time to head to bed, dear, you're beginning to make the old-man speech," she said, to which she and Sanosuke shared a chuckle.

"But the night hasn't even started yet! Nine in the evening, tuck me in next, will you, dear? And me and Sano'd just had three jars each; back in the day I could do five, no problem!" he announced, laughing.

"That was some ten years ago, now, yes? You'll thank me tomorrow for stopping you now, I promise. That's two jars more than you've had in the entire year put together, love," the old lady said, sending a conspiratory grin at Sanosuke.

"She's right, old man," Sanosuke piped in. He got up and announced, "I think I'm headin' out for a walk, anyway." Taking the last two remaining _sake_ jugs and casually slinging it over his shoulder, Sanosuke stepped out into the humid night, making for a quiet drink by the river.

It wasn't until Sanosuke had reached a bend in the river that he fully realized that his aimless stroll had taken him on the path to the clinic.


End file.
